


Tides

by Imasuky



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cunnilingus, F/F, Fingerfucking, Fins as Erogenous Zones, First Love, First Time, Foot Fetish, Foot Jobs, Footfucking, Girls Exploring Each Other's Body, Grinding, Hair Kink, Human/Zora Relationships, Leg Riding, Lesbian Lolicon, Lesbian Sex, Masturbation, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Orgasm from Breast Play, Sexual Frustration, Simultaneous Orgasm, True Love, Vaginal Sex, Young Love, foot worship, knee grinding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-09-29 08:01:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17199668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imasuky/pseuds/Imasuky
Summary: Originally Published: January 2013. As water to the shore, so they were drawn together...





	1. Chapter 1

The young Princess Zelda stared in amazement at the kingdom of the Zoras, known commonly as Zora's Domain. She had heard stories about it from Impa, but seeing it was far beyond what she had imagined. Her father was in a meeting with the King of the Zora, and though she had been told many times that she would one day need to handle such matters herself, they were, right now, far too boring for her, especially when there was so much to see. She was still just a child of eleven; her future was so far off in her eyes that it didn't even seem real.

Zelda turned away from the window and began to wander the hallways of the castle. She wanted to go out and see the city proper, but even though the Zora were generally good and trustworthy people, her father still forbid her to go traipsing about alone.

Soon, she found herself in a corridor which had been decorated with a painting. Zelda was nearly mesmerized by the beauty of the mural on the wall in front of her. It showed the members of the Zora royal family throughout the years, each one drawn in a soft, delicate lines that made them seem almost as if they were part of the waves that made up the background.

“Hey, you're the Princess from the land, right?”

The sudden sound of a voice broke Zelda out of the trance. She turned and saw a young Zora. From what Zelda could tell, based on the height and childlike features, the Zora was near her own age. Though she thought it was probably a girl, for a moment she was unsure of the gender, but soon enough she recognized she was right as she perceived the faintest hint of breasts just barely raising off her chest. This also confirmed her thought that this Zora must be around her own age, for Zelda's breasts had only just started their own nearly imperceptible growth, as well.

“Yes, I am. My name is Zelda. May I ask who you are?” Zelda asked politely, giving a small curtsy.

“I’m Ruto, Princess Ruto,” the girl said, putting her hands on her hips. Ruto approached Zelda, eyeing her up and down. “Hmm. This is the first time I’ve seen one of you land dwellers up close.” She stepped back.

“You look weird. All...peachy, and no fins or anything. But...weird in a nice way! Actually kind of pretty, in a way. A weird way!” she said with a small smile.

Zelda felt her face flush slightly. “Thank you.” She looked Ruto over a bit more closely. Her skin was a lovely mixture of light blues and subtle greens. Her figure was sleek and muscular, a fact that intrigued Zelda almost as much as the natural differences between Zora and human physiology. Zelda herself was only as athletic as a girl of her age and rank was expected to be, so seeing another girl her age whose strength and athleticism was so apparent was fascinating. Nearly transparent frills hung loosely off her arms and hips, giving her an elegance that complimented her frame nicely. Zelda wondered enviously what it was like to have them.

“You are very different, and very pretty, yourself,” Zelda said, and she couldn’t help but notice Ruto’s face growing a bit bluer for a second.

“T...Thanks,” Ruto said, sounding a bit less brazen than before.

“Anyways, how about I show you around? I know all the best places to see around here!” she said, grinning a bit.

Zelda nodded. “I would like that very much,” she said.

Ruto grabbed Zelda’s wrist and began to drag her along. Even though she was wearing gloves, Zelda couldn’t help but notice that the young Zora’s hand was very warm. Part of her had assumed that the aquatic people would be cold. But it wasn’t just the warmth that caught the young Princess off guard. There was a small tingle at the contact that was more mental than physical. Zelda couldn’t quite understand it, but touching Ruto's hand, holding it, felt nice in a way that no one else's hand ever had. Exciting, somehow.

“Since you’re a princess, too, I’ll show you something really special. Not even my father knows about, and he's the king!” Ruto said, turning back and smiling. "It's always been my special place, but maybe it should be a special place for princesses."

She led Zelda through several hallways and up and down a few sets of stairs, before finally coming to a dead end.

“Well, this certainly is an interesting wall,” Zelda teased playfully.

Ruto let out a small chuckle as she pressed her hand against the wall. The stone began to glow faintly, and after a few seconds the wall faded away, revealing a cave with a pool of water in it.

Ruto wasted no time in jumping into the pool. This brought Zelda, who had been gaping in amazement at the magically vanished wall, back to her senses. Zelda couldn’t help but be impressed by the grace of it, a perfect dive with no splash; in fact, barely even a ripple went across the surface. A few seconds later, Ruto popped back up.

“Come on in, it’s great!” she said, bobbing in place.

“Thank you very much for the offer, but my swimwear is still in my room. It‘s quite a walk back, and I'd probably get lost on the way, so I'll just watch,” Zelda said politely.

“Swimwear? What's that? You mean land people wear clothes even when they're swimming?” Ruto asked.

"Well, yes, of course..."

Ruto laughed gaily. "That's so silly! It's already silly enough to wear clothes when you're not cold out of the water, but clothes while you swim? You won't be able to feel the water as well! Why wouldn't you just be naked, instead?"

Zelda’s face went through several shades of red before settling on a brilliant crimson. "Um...I don't know...it's...it's not proper to be...naked...that's all."

"I really don't see why you land people think that. But listen, this is my kingdom, not yours. So pretend you're a Zora, just for now! And a Zora would never wear "swimwear" when she wanted to be in the water. Do you want to come in?"

Zelda looked down, blushing furiously still. The water had looked so cool and inviting, and it was so much fun to play in it and swim, and she really, really wanted to play and swim with her new friend. "Yes."

"Well, then, take that weird clothing off and come in!"

Zelda hesitated for a few moments, but she wanted to go in the water too badly. And anyways, she rationalized as she began to remove her long, white gloves, the Zora princess had asked her to come in - invited her! Invited her in, and though until this second she hadn't cared at all about her future position and duties, suddenly she had a strong belief that it was very important that she, as another princess, not turn down such an invitation. The gloves were followed by her shoes and stockings. Next she removed her head wear.

Ruto squeaked in surprise as Zelda's golden hair, long for her age, came spilling down. "You...you have fur! On the top of your head!"

"It's called hair," Zelda said, giggling. Ruto just nodded, her eyes transfixed on Zelda's golden tresses. She had found the land girl pretty, in her strange way, but this "hair," it was so much more. Ruto could not help but feel a certain jealousy for this beautiful feature of land people, just as Zelda had silently found herself wishing earlier that she, too, could have the lovely, elegant fins that Ruto possessed.

Zelda hesitated for a moment before undoing the back of her dress, which fell away easily.

Even though she had resolved to do as the Zora did, she still felt the need to cover her chest with her hands, blushing a bit. Her other hand unconsciously found its way down to cover her light pink panties. Ruto stopped swimming, and simply floated in place, staring at the girl in front of her. The Zora princess shivered a little, not entirely sure why. The water was not cold to her...

“Please, don’t stare like that,” Zelda said softly, feeling her body getting hot with embarrassment, as well as some other feeling that was getting stronger by the second.

Ruto quickly turned away. “Sorry,” she muttered, sinking down a bit. Being a Zora, she of course didn't think that looking at someone's naked body was a big deal, but...she felt a little embarrassed all the same, because normally it really was just looking. And she knew what she had been doing was staring, and that was different, and it was not just uncomfortable for Zelda, but Ruto felt strange for having done it. Strange for wanting to keep doing it. She felt uncomfortable and embarrassed herself, now.

Taking a deep breath, Zelda slipped her panties off, and gently stepped into the water. The pool was pleasantly warm, yet cool at the same time. The feeling of it relaxed the nervousness quite a bit. “You were right...this is wonderful,” she muttered in contentment as she submerged herself up to her shoulders.

Ruto turned around, now that Zelda was in the water. “I know. This place is great.”

Now that she was in the water, Zelda couldn’t help but marvel even more at just how elegant Ruto was. Zelda watched as the graceful Zora girl glided through the water effortlessly, her shape an elegant fluid of its own within the water, those entrancing fins spreading, pushing, catching every slight watery movement. The amazing thing was that Zelda could tell Ruto wasn't trying to show off or anything; she was just swimming casually, art in motion without even trying.

“Beautiful.”

The word slipped out so easily that she almost didn’t realize she'd said it, until Ruto stopped mid-stroke and looked toward her, blushing sea green. For a moment their eyes met, and this time it was Zelda's body that felt a strange shiver shoot through it.

“Th...Thanks,” Ruto said, looking away for a moment. She gently moved toward Zelda. “If you want, I can give you some tips...you won’t get as good as I am, of course, I'm the best swimmer I know! But you’ll probably be better than any other land dweller out there.”

Zelda imagined herself gliding through the water with elegant power, so natural that it seemed like the most graceful dancing. "Yes, please! That would be wonderful!"

As Ruto got closer, Zelda could feel her body getting hotter and hotter. Ruto positioned herself behind the young Hylian princess. “Now, I’m going to hold you,” she said, her usual confident tone shaking a bit.

The moment of contact was electric. Ruto’s hands were just as warm as Zelda had thought, but there was something else that stood out; the feel of tiny scales created a slickness that made it almost hard to tell the difference between her skin and the water around them. It was as though the pool itself was gently touching her.

Ruto’s hands slowly moved along Zelda’s waist, and then gently down her hips. For some reason, it made Zelda want to...to make a sound, like a whimper, but different. But she fought to keep from making it.

“Just shift your weight a bit,” Ruto said, softly pressing a bit against Zelda’s hips.

“Like...like this?” Zelda asked as she let her body relax. As she did, Ruto’s hands continued to move along her small frame, one inching down her leg before coming to rest near her thigh, the other continuing up her torso, stopping just below her ribs.

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” Ruto said, her fingers twitching lightly. The sensation of the small movements was...it did something to her, sent a shiver through her. It wasn't like normal shiver, though, it was like...like a good feeling that jumped through her skin. It made her jerk slightly. Ruto didn’t loosen her grip for a second.

“Are you alright?” she asked, concern clear in her voice.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Zelda said meekly. “But perhaps I should get out of the water for a while.” She kept her face turned away from the other princess as she spoke. She wasn't sure why, but she felt...embarrassed by it.

“Alright.” Ruto released her gentle grip, a small sigh escaping as she did. Zelda, too, felt like sighing at the loss of the contact.

Easily enough Zelda swam to the edge of the pool and lifted herself out, her long blonde hair cascading with water as she did. She hoisted herself onto the edge and began to brush her hair with her fingers. As Ruto watched from the pool, she couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of alabaster skin and golden locks, so different from the blues and greens of her own people, who were so smooth and streamlined. Zelda’s hair in particular fascinated her; it had the same brilliant color as the sun, and the way it moved made her think of the ripples of sunlight dancing at the surface of the water when she was deep down.

“I-I know this might sound strange but, may I touch your hair, please?” Ruto blurted out, surprising both Zelda and herself. But Zelda answered with a simple nod of her head, sending another ripple through the very hair in question. Ruto swam to the edge of the pool and easily lifted herself out of the water, sitting next to Zelda. Slowly she reached out and caught a few strands of it between her fingers. She gently twirled it around.

“It’s strange,” Zelda said softly. Ruto quickly pulled her hand back.

“What is?!” she asked, completely caught of guard. Had she done something wrong?

Zelda looked surprised at Ruto's reaction, and then smiled. "Oh, it's nothing you were doing, don't worry. I was just thinking it's strange, how similar yet different our people are.” She cocked her head slightly to look at Ruto, their eyes meeting.

“Our bodies look so much alike, and yet...” She raised an hand and gently placed it on Ruto cheek. Both girl’s blushed at it, in very different colors. Each sat in silence for several seconds before Zelda pulled her hand away. "And yet we're so different...our skin's different colors; in fact, you don't even have skin, you have really tiny scales...the hair, the fins, the head shape...so many things. And still...so different, but so...alike."

"Hey, speaking of different things, can I ask you something?" Ruto said bluntly, ruining the philosophically poetic mood Zelda’s words had set. She pointed at Zelda's chest, where soft pink nipples had slightly hardened from the now cooling water that still clung to her body.

At the sudden visual attention, Zelda covered her chest for a moment. This didn't discourage Ruto's curiosity, though. “What exactly are those two little bumps?” she asked blinking once.

For several seconds Zelda stared at her in an almost disbelieving way. “Are you...serious?” she asked. Was Ruto teasing her, or something?

Ruto nodded. “Completely."

“They are...they're called nipples,” Zelda said.

Ruto waited for a moment, still staring at the two spots that Zelda was using her arm to cover. Then she said, "Okay, nipples. But what are they? Do they do something? Or are they just there for looks, like your hair? I hope it's not just that, because your hair is amazing, but they don't really look special."

Zelda blushed at the Zora's praise of her locks. Slowly, a bit reluctantly, she lowered her arm so that Ruto could continue to look at them. She was only curious, after all. "Well...when girls grow up and become mommies, they use them to feed their babies,” she said, feeling strange explaining something that seemed like such common knowledge. But of course, the Zora lacked the same feature, so it made sense that Ruto wouldn't know.

“Really, that’s what they're for?” Ruto asked, sounding rather surprised. "How? Do the babies eat them? Doesn't that hurt?"

"No, no," Zelda told her. "Girls grow breasts as they get older, and inside the breasts, there's milk. The milk, it, um, it comes out of the nipples when the babies get hungry, I think." She didn't clearly remember everything about the talk that Impa had had with her a few months before, nor did she have any useful memories of her own mother breastfeeding her, but that was the gist of it.

"Oh," Ruto said. She was still staring at Zelda's nipples, but now she was doing so with less curiosity and more like they were a little gross, but intriguing at the same time. "That's weird. So weird! You land people are really, really weird!"

Zelda nodded and giggled. "I think it's weird, too!" she confessed in almost a whisper. "But what about you? I saw some Zora women this morning when we arrived, and they had breasts. Why don't you Zora have nipples? That's weird, too!”

Ruto gave her the same quizzical look that she had received only a few moments ago. “They're for breathing, of course. They have...they're like a second set of lungs, sort of. They hold extra air, and when we drink water, some of it goes into them and they take air out of it. That way we can stay under water for a long time, because we have extra air, and because we can get a little extra air from drinking while we're under."

“Then why do only women have them?” Zelda asked, determined to find some way that Zora breasts could be as weird as human ones.

“Because we need to stay underwater longer to take care of our eggs,” she said, as if any idiot should know. "That's why we only grow them when we get old enough to have eggs."

Zelda pouted a little, out of ideas. It seemed that that she'd won the weird contest. Ruto didn't seem to notice. "So, can I touch them?" she asked with casual curiosity.

Zelda's arm shot up and covered her chest once again. "N-No!"

Ruto drew back, surprised that what seemed like a natural question would get such a response. Zelda had not objected to Ruto touching her hair, after all. "Oh...okay. S-Sorry. Why not?"

Zelda blushed fiercely. "Um...they're, they're private. They're a part of a girl that other people aren't supposed to touch," she explained, saying almost word for word what Impa had once told her.

"Why not?" Ruto asked, more curious than ever.

Zelda's blush grew even more, because she was embarrassed to admit, "I...I don't know. That's just...how it is."

Ruto let her hands drop to her sides, and moved back from Zelda a little. "Okay. I'm sorry?"

They sat and said nothing for a few minutes. The air was awkward between them. Ruto knew she had crossed some line without meaning to, and she felt bad about it, and didn't want to say or do anything else that might also upset her new friend. Zelda also felt bad, because she knew her reaction had made her new friend feel bad, and now everything felt wrong. And worse still, it was all for some reason that Zelda didn't even know! Impa wouldn't tell her _why_ she shouldn't let people touch her there when she had asked, just implied it was something that only a bad person would try to do.

But Ruto wasn't bad! She was nice, and fun, and the first friend of Zelda's that had treated her like...well, like a real friend. Zelda had met other children, children of important people in the kingdom, and her father and Impa often referred to those children as Zelda's friends, but they'd never been the same, they just seemed to treat Zelda the same as anyone else did, like a princess. Ruto was Zelda's first friend...and right now, this situation felt like it was a threat to that new friendship.

Zelda swallowed and dropped her arm. "Um, Ruto, if...I'm sorry for...um, you can touch them! If you want to!" she announced. She knew she was doing something bad, going against what she'd been told, but she didn't care any more. And maybe if she let Ruto touch her nipples, Ruto would let Zelda touch her fins. They were so very elegant and pretty, and Zelda was still spellbound by them.

Ruto slowly smiled. "Are you sure? It's not a big deal if you don't-"

"Yes. Go ahead."

Ruto reached out with one hand and very lightly brushed a finger tip against one of the small nubs. The moment she did, Zelda felt a shock go through her body. It was kind of like a static zap, only very pleasant, unlike anything she had felt before. The feeling caused her to let out a soft cry. Ruto jerked her hand back, nearly jumping away.

“Are you alright?! I'm sorry! Are you okay!?” she asked, almost in a panic.

Zelda said nothing for a second, trying to come to terms with what she had just felt. “Um, y...yes,” she said softly, breathing a little hard. “That...that felt weird, and, and really good..."

“It sounded painful,” Ruto said, looking at Zelda doubtfully.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but, it really did feel good,” Zelda said reassuringly. "I just...I guess I was surprised by how good it felt, so I made a noise."

"Okay...then...do you want me to touch them again, since they feel good? I didn't really get a good feel before..." Ruto asked, fidgeting a bit. Zelda hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Ruto put the fingers of each hand to work exploring her friend's small pink nips, which by now were standing out very hard and tall for their size. She rubbed them, flicked them a bit, and then withdrew her hands and shrugged. They didn't seem that special to her.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ruto asked, noticing that Zelda's eyes were closed very tight and she was breathing very heavily. Her hands were balled up into fists.

"Y-Yes...fine..." Zelda managed to say back. "It just...felt so good..."

'Good' was such an understatement. It had seemed like a happy liquid fire was within her chest as Ruto had explored her buds, and even as she had found herself lost in that good feeling, she had become aware that there was something even better growing, something...lower.

Ruto sat back. "So why aren't other people supposed to touch them, if they feel good? I don't get it."

Zelda opened her eyes, coming back down to Hyrule as her pleasant sensations faded away. "I don't know. My nanny just told me other people weren't supposed to, that's all. That it was private. She made it sound like it would be...really bad, if they did," she explained, though truthfully she was as puzzled as the Zora princess. It had felt so nice.

Ruto got a thoughtful look on her face. "You know, that sort of sounds like something my father told me a couple years ago," she remarked. "He was explaining some stuff to me about growing up, and he said that my fins were for me and only me, and if any other Zora tried to grab them then I should get away from that person and tell a servant or guard. I figured it was because they seem so delicate, but I don't know...mine have always been really tough."

"What are they for, anyway?" Zelda asked. "I guess they must help you swim?"

"Oh, yeah, lots!" Ruto replied. "They help me read currents, and change direction, and lots of stuff. Swimming would be really tough without them."

Zelda nodded, looking at the lovely appendages longingly. Ruto saw her look, and said, "I guess...since you let me touch you...you could touch my fins, if you want."

"Really?" Zelda almost squealed with excitement.

Ruto nodded. "Fair is fair..."

She held out her arm closer to Zelda. Just as slow as when Ruto had touched her, Zelda reached out and traced her fingers against the flap of skin. The feel of it was like the rest of her, smooth and warm, and yet ethereal, almost like water. As she traced her fingers along it, Ruto closed her eyes, breathing in short sharp gasps. Her entire body shook softly. What she had not yet learned was that Zora's fins, already a naturally over-sensitive body part out of necessity for being able to work with the subtlest moods of the water, were hubs of pleasurable nerve endings, just as a human woman's nipples. When Zelda began to tentatively squeeze the fin to test its density, Ruto let out a sharp cry just as Zelda had.

Zelda pulled her hand away and looked at Ruto. Seeing the look on her face made her realize why the Zora had been concerned about her, before: eyes clenched tightly, mouth half open in a cross between a smile and a frown, it was hard to imagine at first that she could be feeling anything but great pain. But Zelda recognized the cry as like her own, so she simply sat and waited.

Once she managed to regain her senses, Ruto murmured something so softly that Zelda could barely hear. “What did you say?” she asked.

“I get what you meant about it feeling good,” she said, grinning. Zelda smiled and nodded back. Somehow, it felt good to her that she had made her friend feel nice, as she had.

The two sat without saying anything for several seconds. As Zelda looked at Ruto, she could feel another tingle building up in her belly. It was like when Ruto had touched her nipple, but a bit different. And as she looked at Ruto, she could feel it spreading and getting stronger. Its location helped her to remember something else from her nanny's talk.

"What are you thinking about?" Ruto asked, seeing Zelda chewing her lip in what seemed like thoughtful apprehension, like she was thinking something but wasn't sure if she should share it.

“Well...I'm thinking about the things Impa told me. There was...there was another place she said was just as private,” Zelda said hesitantly.

Ruto's eyes widened as she remembered something similar. "Wait, yeah, my father did, too! It was...it was down..." Not comfortable with putting it into words, she pointed at down where her legs met.

Zelda nodded excitedly. "Yes, yes, mine's down there, too!" she said, regaining her confidence at knowing not only that Ruto was on the same page as her, but that they were physically alike in another way, a way that seemed important.

They looked at each other, and the special places in question, for a minute. Then they both tried to talk at once.

"So would you-"

"Do you want-"

They stopped, and suddenly burst into giggles. It was obvious they were thinking the exact same thing.

"I want to touch yours, do you want to touch mine?" Zelda offered, turning to her friend and opening her legs up to offer full access.

"Yeah, I was just gonna ask that! I bet this one feels good, too!" Ruto exclaimed back. Having gotten as far as they had so far without any negative consequences, and realizing they were both on the same page, all their nervousness had just seemed to melt away. All there was now was a sense of fun excitement, exploration of something unknown with a new but somehow very important friend.

They both gave each other a visual examination for a moment. Zelda was curious; Ruto's private place looked a lot like hers, except..."Yours doesn't have an open place, like mine."

"No, it does," Ruto replied, explaining. "But most of the time it's closed up really tight, to keep water out. Sometimes it opens a little, though. But it does it on its own; I don't really know how to make it."

After another moment of looking, both of them moved their hands towards each other's crotch. Zelda made contact first. Just as Ruto had said, there was a thin slit that she could feel running up and down, just where her own was. The feel of Ruto's spot was very similar to her own body...a bit slicker, but otherwise almost the same. Ruto gasped sharply as Zelda ran a finger along her slit. it was like the feeling of when her fin had been touched, but times a thousand! It was nearly overwhelming pleasure.

" _OH_! Oh, Zelda, oh, oh, that feels so good!" she could not help but say, although it was more like a keening moan.

Zelda smiled, happy that this was, indeed, another feel-good place, and happier still that she could make her friend feel this way. As she stroked her finger up and down, she was surprised to feel Ruto's slit begin to open. Its outer edges seemed flatter than her own. Watching it slowly open reminded her of the morning that she had once spent watching a flower bloom. Wondering if she could make it "bloom" further, Zelda sped up her strokes.

Ruto was trembling and whimpering now, her entire body assaulted by pleasure she'd never known could exist, and could not hope to describe. But she wanted to make sure that Zelda felt just as good, so Ruto pushed down the feeling as best she could and reached over. Her fingers brushed against the small mound around her crotch. The feel of Zelda’s skin was still strange to Ruto, smooth but not nearly as much as her own, but still very soft in a way that she hadn’t experienced before. Zelda flinched a bit as Ruto’s fingers gently slid along her, a small whimper escaping her lips. Now she was experiencing unknown delights, too.

The two gently ran their fingers up and down each other's slits for several minutes, taking almost as much enjoyment at hearing each other's coos and whimpers as they did from the pleasure they felt themselves. The pleasure just seemed to grow and grow, and the more they had, the more they felt like they needed. Each girl was now softly rolling her hips, timing her movements with her friend's finger to get as much feeling as she could from each stroke.

Suddenly Ruto drew her finger away for a moment. Zelda let out a disappointed little cry. "What's wrong? Why did you stop? Please go back!"

Ruto was looking at her finger intently. "I'm sorry, I will, I promise. But Zelda, mmm, it's weird, my finger's all wet, and, oh, I'm sure it's not from the water," she said, trying to speak through her reactions to Zelda's actions.

Zelda drew her finger away to check, and sure enough, hers was also wet. "Mine too. Why is that happening?"

Ruto bent down and got a good look at Zelda's private area, still breathing heavily from what they had been doing. After a moment, she began poking against Zelda's slit, which of course made Zelda whimper in delight. "Hey, Zelda, there's...there's...it's a little thicker than water, but it looks like it. There's some of this liquid coming out of your...your open place." Seeing the horrified look on her friend's face, she quickly added, "It's okay, it's not pee or anything, I promise! Don't feel bad!" The look left Zelda's face.

Ruto leaned back, and Zelda leaned forward to get a look at her friend's. "I think it's happening with you, too. Why is that? Do you still feel alright?"

Ruto nodded. "I still feel better than I've ever felt. You?"

Zelda nodded back. "Yes."

Ruto thought for a moment, then said, "I wonder if it's supposed to mean something. Maybe we should try...try putting out fingers in there."

Zelda wasn't sure she liked that idea. "In there? But...what if it hurts? It's...it's inside us!"

Ruto shrugged. "Well, nothing has hurt so far, it's all felt wonderful. But we'll stop if it hurts, of course. I don't want to hurt you, I just want to make you feel good."

Zelda blushed. "Thanks...I want to make you feel the same way...but...can we do it together, then?" She was still a little scared about the idea, and having Ruto with her doing the exact same thing made her feel a little reassured.

"Of course!" Ruto smiled.

At the same time each of them ran their fingers along each others slit, and found the small opening. They stopped and looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds, before pressing forward slowly.

There was a slight pressure as Ruto’s finger entered Zelda. It was mildly uncomfortable for a second, but after that initial second it became pleasurable. The feeling of being stretched out and filled up at the same time was a completely different kind of pleasure than having her nipples touched, or even having the outer edges rubbed. It was deep, and satisfying, almost natural, as if it was something that had been missing from her life, and now that she had it, she didn’t want to release it any time soon. At the same moment she could feel Ruto’s warm, moist folds wrapping around her finger, pulling it in the way her own body was doing.

Both girls were silent, apart from a few moans and whimpers, as they gently moved their fingers inside of each other, each exploring, discovering the most intimate details of her friend. As Zelda looked at her friends' face, blushing brightly with her eyes closed, she couldn’t help but think of how lovely she looked.

“Ruto...” she said softly.

Ruto opened her eyes. “Wh...What?”

Lost in this amazing moment and barely conscious of what she was doing, Zelda leaned over and very lightly kissed Ruto on the lips. It was only for a second, but this sudden moment of new, deeper affection was enough to send both of them past the brink. At once both girls were struck by a wave of pleasure so strong that they both broke their lips' contact and screamed out loud, powerful spasms rocking their small bodies. Out of control with bliss they never knew existed, too overcome to even maintain conscious thought, neither one of them kept their finger moving, but the spasms that rocked them like tidal waves kept their bodies so in motion that just the act of riding it out maintained their pleasure, extending its length.

As it came to an end, the two girls fell back softly, and lay still, their only movement being unbelieving trembles and their chests moving up and down heavily. There were tears in Ruto's eyes, as the experience had overwhelmed her on every level, and Zelda couldn't blame her, feeling like she could burst into tired, happy tears any moment herself.

After a few minutes, Ruto quietly sniffled a couple times, and wiped her tears away, while Zelda politely pretended not to notice. Once she was content that she looked okay, she turned to look at Zelda. "That was...I don't know what happened, but it was the best thing that's ever happened to me!"

"It was like I just exploded, but, in a great way!" Zelda responded. Ruto nodded.

"Thank you," Ruto said, the heartfelt emotion clear in her voice. Zelda nodded, and said the same words back, in the same way.

“So...so why did you do that? At the end?” Ruto asked after a moment. Somehow saying the word "kiss" would make it too real, at least until she knew that was what Zelda had meant.

“It...it just...felt right," Zelda answered, smiling.

Ruto smiled back. “Yeah. It did,” she said. Slowly, giving Zelda all the time she needed to say no, she leaned over, and when Zelda said nothing, she gently kissed the land princess on the lips. There was no explosion of pleasure this time...but somehow it still felt just as good.

The two girls spent a few minutes longer lying on the ground, giving each other small kisses now and then, in between gentle touches of the other's body. This time there was no goal, no need for the caresses...they simply wanted to enjoy the contact. After a while, Zelda spoke again. “Even though I hate to say it...I think we should leave, before either of our parents begin to wonder where we are."

Ruto frowned. “I guess...” Truthfully, she was used to going missing for hours on end and driving her caretakers to distraction as they searched for her, but land people's princesses, she decided, must do things differently. She looked to Zelda. “But let’s meet up again tomorrow!” she said.

Zelda nodded eagerly and promised to do so. She hugged her new, special friend tightly, and her embrace was returned. Then she drew away, and put her clothes back on, and Ruto opened the wall up again. It took a while for them to return to the mural where they had met earlier.

“Princess, where have you been all this time?” Impa asked, walking into the room, a worried look on her face.

“Princess Ruto was just showing me around,” Zelda said, unable to hide a coy smile. Ruto had a similar grin. Neither were very good at hiding their thoughts - Zelda was inexperienced with causing mischief, and Ruto was the kind of little terror that delighted too much in causing trouble to try to hide it.

Impa raised an eyebrow at the expression, but said no more, hoping whatever games they had been playing would not cause diplomatic troubles. “That’s very good. Now come along, it’s very late, and you need to rest,” the caretaker said. Zelda gave a small bow to Ruto, and began to walk alongside her nanny.

“So you and Princess Ruto had a good day?” Impa asked.

“Yes, very much so! I can’t wait until tomorrow. We’re going to have even more fun!” Zelda said, thoughts of their afternoon together flashing in her head.

Impa frowned slightly. “As much as I wish you could spend more time with your new friend, I'm afraid we will not be staying another day.”

Zelda froze in place. “What?” she asked in a small voice.

“The Kings were able to settle matters far more quickly than anticipated, so we will be leaving first thing in the morning.”

Large tears began to well up in Zelda’s eyes. “N...No,’ she said, trying to blink back the tears.

Impa turned toward her. “Princess?” She was shocked to see Zelda react this way. The girl rarely wept.

Zelda shook her head. “I...I don’t want to go...I finally meet someone who I really like and, I, I don’t get to spend any time with her...it’s not fair...” Zelda swallowed hard. The tears were now flowing freely down her face.

Imp's face softened. She'd never have thought Zelda would hit it off so well with the Zora princess; Zelda usually did not seem to care much for children her age. She knelt down and drew her arms around the young princess, hugging her and murmuring gentle sounds into her pointed ears. As she let the girl cry against her shoulder, Impa resolved to try to make it up to her. Nothing could be done now; Zelda's father's schedule was set, meetings planned and promises made according to tomorrow's departure. But Impa could make sure that the king knew that his daughter would like to return here soon, and surely it would be easy to work out a visit every now and then. If nothing else, it would be a promising investment, for the two future queens to be close.

Zelda's tears eventually slowed and then stopped, though she was no less sad, and she and Impa went to her room, and made ready for bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Princess Zelda lowered herself into the huge bath, letting out a contented sigh. It had been almost a week since she had been forced to part ways with Princess Ruto, and although she still wasn’t very happy, she had cried out the worst of her disappointment. Even so, remembering the young Zora girl and wishing to see her again were thoughts she had often each day now. This moment was no different - as she soaked in the warm water, Zelda began to think back to her explorations with the other girl. As usual, the more she thought about it, the more she recalled that fluttering in her stomach and her chest, recalled it and even felt it once again.

This time she wanted to try to do something about it.

Looking to the door and making sure it was tightly closed, she brought one hand out of the water and touched one of her nipples. There was a twinge of pleasure, but nowhere near what it had been with Ruto. Even so, she continued to gently play with the small nub, her breathing becoming a bit heavier. The feeling in her belly grew stronger as well. Casting another furtive glance to the door, she moved her other hand to her crotch. She cupped the small mound with her hand. The mere contact of it was enough to make her shiver in pleasure, but again, she couldn’t help but think of how much better it had felt when Ruto had been the one to touch her. The feelings were similar, and yet, there was no comparison. This was nice...with Ruto, it had been the best moment of her life.

Zelda closed her eyes and tried as best she could to recall the smoothness and warmth of the Zora princess’s hand against her body. As she did, she gently let the tips of her fingers slide into herself. She bit down on her lip to keep from moaning at the feeling of the sudden entry. The feeling of her own inner walls squeezing down around her finger was wonderful and pleasurable, but it still lacked the same fulfilling nature as when Ruto had done it. Thinking of her friend helped make it better, but only a little. Zelda sped up her fingers, gently pinching her nipple as she did.

Before very long the intense burst of pleasure that she had felt when she kissed Ruto hit her, only, it was nowhere near as powerful or lasting. It felt great, but it was...relief, not fulfillment, not contentment, not beautiful, blissful emotional satisfaction. And once it passed...once it passed, a wave of empty loneliness, of longing for her friend, hit her so hard that she began to weep all over again, almost as hard as she had the first time.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Princess Ruto stared up at the ceiling of her secret room. Normally just floating in the hidden pool was enough to make her happy, but now, it only frustrated her. Because it wasn't just her secret room any more...she had shared it, made it a secret room for her _and_ Zelda, and now, not having her here made the whole place feel wrong. She looked over to the edge of the pool where only a few days ago she had been with Zelda, doing so many new and fun things. Even now she could still feel the slight tingle on her lips where the land princess had kissed her.

The more she thought about it, the stronger the feeling grew, and it wasn’t limited just to her upper lips, either. Hopping out of the water and onto the ledge, she spread her legs. She ran her fingers along her crotch softly, and soon enough the folds parted, exposing her privates. The feeling of the air on her inner folds was still really new to Ruto, and made her shudder slightly. Brushing that aside, she slipped a single finger into herself, seeking to remember that wonderful feeling she had shared with Zelda that day.

Ruto began to gently wriggle her finger, almost like she was tickling herself. As she did, she could feel the heat in her belly getting stronger. But her own finger was...it was nothing compared to Zelda’s. Not just that...the soft sounds of her moans and breathing, as well, even the faint scent that surrounded her, all of those things added together to make the experience so much better, and now without them, Ruto simply couldn’t feel the same kind of pleasure.

She paused, wondering for a moment. She could try to keep going...it still felt good, surely she could make the same pleasure explosion happen again by herself. But...but it wasn't the same, and it wouldn't be the same, it wouldn't be good and wonderful and right like it had been. She didn't want some pale imitation...she wanted the beautiful, exotic girl she'd met, who felt so good and warm and soft, who smelled different but pleasant, who had odd pinkish skin and strange little nipples on her chest and beautiful, beautiful gold hair! She wanted her little land princess!

Ruto yanked her finger out of herself with a strangled sob. She kicked at the surface of the pool in lonely frustration as she let out a small cry of disappointment. Then, tears in her eyes, she stood up and left the secret room...their secret room. She would not cheapen what they'd done together. Princess Ruto knew then that she would never again return alone to this special place, just as she knew she would never return her finger to her own special place. If she could not be in this secret place without Zelda, could not have Zelda be the one to explore her and make her feel good, then Ruto would not have them at all.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Princesses Zelda and Ruto met once more, a few months after their first meeting, but only briefly. A boy had come to Hyrule one day, a boy with a story of time travel, Triforces, Sages, and so many monsters. Somehow, both Zelda and Impa knew, could feel it in their bones, that they should implicitly trust him. And so it was that on the day that Ganondorf launched his secret coup, he found himself ambushed by Hyrule's entire military and six individuals who had suddenly been awoken by that boy as Hyrule's sacred Sages. The small group of monsters Ganondorf had brought with him, perfect for an unexpected strike, were immediately overwhelmed and destroyed, and Ganondorf himself was taken in chains. A ceremony had taken place that very evening to kill the King of Thieves, conducted by the six Sages, but he had proven so much more powerful than they had expected, more powerful even than the boy had warned, for the boy had thought Ganondorf had gained the Triforce of Power during his reign, not before it. The mysterious Sage of Light, Rauru, was killed in this encounter, but the other Sages had managed to banish Ganondorf into another realm, one of shadows and twilight, and the matter was, hopefully, finished.

The reason that Zelda and Ruto met at this time was that Ruto was one of the Sages the boy summoned to the palace. But the encounter was so brief that one might not even count it as a meeting. Despite the boy's warning that Zelda, as the seventh and most powerful Sage, should be present, the king had been too fearful of letting his young daughter be anywhere near this dark event, and Zelda had been sent away from the palace after a brief, public introduction to the Sages. The boy went with her, to protect her, since without the Master Sword, which was back in its place in the Temple of Time, there would be little he could have done to help in Ganondorf's capture. He brought her to the Kokiri Wood, where she spent a week and a half before a messenger came to tell her that it was safe to return. The boy and his forest friends had been very nice, had been fun to play with, but all through her visit her mind was on her other friend, alternating between worrying for her safety and thinking of all the things they could do together when Zelda returned.

But when Zelda got back to her castle, all the Sages, save Impa, had left. There was no reason for them to stay, and the Zora king, whose worry for his daughter was no less than the king of Hyrule's, wanted Princess Ruto to return to Zora's Domain as soon as possible. And unfortunately for both young girls, the Zora king's displeasure at having had to put his daughter in such a position of danger when the king of Hyrule had refused to do the same soured relations between the land people and the Zora, soured them very badly. For the next seven years, there was almost real enmity between the governments of each people, and it was almost a wonder on several occasions that actual war was not declared.

It is at the end of that seventh year that our story continues...


	3. Chapter 3

“Princess, I know that you and Princess Ruto got along very well when you first met, but it has been seven years since, and much has changed, both for you and your kingdoms. Please exercise appropriate caution at the discussions...and out of them,” Impa warned as she ran the brush through Zelda’s long, golden hair.

“Do not worry, Impa, I know very well how to handle myself, thanks to you. And I doubt there will be many problems. I'm sure the Zora are as tired of enmity as ours are,” Zelda said, smiling.

“I do not doubt you, Princess, only the circumstances you will be put into,” Impa sighed. Even though Zelda had grown to be a very confident and skilled young woman, Impa would always see her as the same innocent young girl that she had helped to raise.

Zelda looked at herself in the mirror. As could only be expected, she had changed much in seven years, and was now a full-fledged woman. Her hair now hung down just past her waist, her chest, though smaller than most, denoted beyond any doubt her womanhood, and her now adult figure was lean and trim, with a hint of muscle showing. Ever since she had seen Ruto and been both impressed and intrigued by her visible strength, Zelda had wanted to become more active, to be strong, strong enough for others to see. At first Impa had been hesitant, but after the incident with Ganondorf and the young boy who was Hero of Time had told them stories of the Zelda he knew, a strong, dangerous fighter whose skills were on par with any of the Sheikah, Impa had agreed to train the princess in the martial arts. Princess Zelda was still not nearly the combatant she had been in the timeline that the boy had seen, as desperation and necessity are powerful teachers, as well, but she was nonetheless very strong, very fast, and very skilled, easily the most dangerous warrior in the castle besides Impa herself. The training had been good for her, for beyond just the subtly visible muscle tone she possessed, she now had a natural bearing of strength and leadership born from the confidence her training gave her.

Reflecting on how much she had grown and changed over the years, Zelda couldn’t help but also wonder just how much Ruto had changed. She had seen adult Zoras, but it was hard to really transpose the alluring young beauty of her memories of her friend onto an adult's body.

There was a light knock at the door. “You may enter,” Impa called out, and a moment later the door opened. One of the guards stood in full regalia.

“The royal carriage is ready, and awaits you at your convenience, Princess,” he announced in a stern voice.

“Thank you for the message,” Zelda said, giving a small curtsy. The guard blushed faintly at the gesture. Though she was far above them in class stature, Zelda treated all of the staff with more kindness and respect than most people treated their own peers. With a salute, the guard took his leave.

“Well then, Impa, let us not keep them waiting,” Zelda said, heading toward the door, her caretaker following quickly behind.

A large group of knights surrounded the carriage. Zelda frowned. “This is completely unnecessary,” she muttered softly.

“I quite agree,” Impa said much more firmly, walking up to the captain. Zelda could not hear the conversation, but had a good idea of its content. The captain would be pointing out that the king had told them to protect his daughter, and then Impa would be explaining that so many soldiers showing up to a peace meeting would be counterproductive, and it would go in such a way back and forth for several moments. But as strong and commanding as the captain was, he was no match for the nursemaid. And soon enough he relented, with a mere two knights being sent. In Impa's judgment, two trained soldiers to assist a master Sheikah was more than enough protection for even a helpless passenger, which Zelda was anything but.

The trip to the Zora’s Domain was short and uneventful, as Zelda and Impa had suspected it would be. The domain of Hyrule was safer now than it had even been seven years ago, for the Hero of Time had taken it on himself to be a traveling guardian of Hyrule, spending most of his time riding from one end of the kingdom to the other on his horse, exterminating the odd monster and assisting travelers as he went.

Eventually the carriage had gotten as far as it could into Zora's Domain, and the rest of the way would have to be made on foot. A delegation of Zoras were waiting for them to disembark. As Zelda stepped out of the carriage, she was greeted by the sight of a particularly lovely Zora woman with several soldiers kneeling beside her. The woman was tall and slender, with the same athletic sinew that nearly all Zora were known to have. As was usually the case, this Zora was naked, allowing Zelda a fully accessible view of the woman's chest (which was larger than Zelda's) - but then, "breasts" had no real meaning to the Zoras, so there was no particular reason for her to cover them. But more than her chest, the Zora woman’s fins stood out to Zelda, and caught her attention. They were ethereal and lovely. They shimmered and swayed ever so slightly in the faint breeze, each movement creating a shimmering ripple of blues, greens, and various forms of aqua. Though Zelda was entranced by them, she forced her attention higher, to look the woman in the eyes, and it was then, as she beheld those same entrancing amethyst eyes fixed in features so strikingly familiar, that Zelda realized that it was her dear friend Princess Ruto before her.

Zelda felt a faint blush spread across her face as she tried to think of a proper greeting, and found herself at a complete loss for words. For years she had imagined what she would say, what she would do, when she finally reunited with her friend, but now, all ideas, all those plans, felt silly, forced, strange, or childish. And at this second, a dark anxiety hit the blonde princess, as a possibility occurred to her that she had never given any thought before: What if Ruto did not care as much about seeing her? Seven years of enmity between their cultures could...could so easily have seeped their poison into the sleeping friendship they shared. Even if not for that, people could change so much in seven years...Impa herself had warned Zelda...

Panicking inside, and knowing she needed to do something, Zelda haltingly performed a respectful and painfully formal bow, saying, "G...Greetings, Princess Ruto. It is...good to see you again. I offer my thanks for having us."

Ruto's face was impossible to read as she bowed back and replied, "Yes, it's...it is good to see you again, too, Princess Zelda. We're honored to have you, of course."

There was a silence for just a moment, short enough that everyone else present didn't notice it, but long enough that it felt awkward, and even painful, to Zelda. Neither princess knew what to say or how to act, and it terrified Zelda now to wonder whether it was because things had changed between them, because maybe Ruto had put that day behind her, and expected Zelda to do the same. Then the silence was broken by Ruto clearing her throat lightly, and suggesting that they proceed straight to the meeting. Trying to make up for that moment, for how strange and awkward she feared she now appeared to Ruto, and for how childish and uncomfortable she now felt, Zelda jumped on the suggestion and agreed. Flanked by their guards and Impa, the princesses both walked in uncomfortable silence.

 

o0o0o0o

 

The meeting was rather tedious. The core hostility between their peoples was being pointedly ignored right now, and the talks were focusing at first on simple matters of trade and territory borders, which, regardless of everything else, had changed little since the last time the Kings had dealt with them. It was more an initial testing of waters between the kingdoms, letting each princess get attuned to the other's position and mood. The deeper issues would be discussed the next day.

Zelda did her best to represent herself and her kingdom well, but she could not help but be distracted the entire time. Ruto's focus was entirely on the matter at hand, which just continued to distract Zelda as she questioned further and further how they stood now. It did not help that Princess Ruto was...well, there was no point in denying it, she was arrestingly attractive. Zelda often caught herself during the meeting allowing her eyes to linger a little too long and heavily upon Ruto's beautiful amethyst eyes, the lovely, shifting, ethereal glimmer of her fins, or her rounded, smooth breasts - knowing they had no sexual function did not seem to make them any less alluring to the human perspective. The meeting continued, and Zelda continued to struggle to focus.

Once the meeting was finished, Ruto left without saying a single word, or even looking back at Zelda. The Hylian princess felt a twinge of something deep inside. It wasn’t quite pain or sadness, though it contained both. It was more of an emptiness, like she had felt in the first few days after their last parting. Pushing aside that feeling, Zelda headed to her room. As bad as she felt, she knew that she would have to keep the feelings hidden until she returned home. After all, it would not look good for her kingdom if she showed any signs of depression during the first meeting in seven years.

 

o0o0o0o

 

Zelda sat down on the edge of her bed. ( _I really should have expected this. Impa warned me many times, and she's right. After all, we were just children playing around..._ ), she thought to herself, laying back on her bed. Looking up at the shimmering reflections on the ceiling, she couldn’t help but think back to the grotto they had been in...and suddenly she was overcome with a desire to see that secret room again, to be in that wonderful place of her childhood.

“I think this was the hall,” Zelda muttered to herself a few minutes later, looking around. Even though it had been several years since the last time she had been there, Zelda remembered the path pretty well. Before long, she found herself standing in front of a dead end, but it was exactly where she wanted to be. Reaching out, she traced her fingers along the wall the way that Ruto had all those years ago. For a few seconds, it seemed as though her effort was wasted, but soon enough, the wall began to shimmer and fade away. Zelda walked in, and there, in front of the pool, stood Princess Ruto.

“You came! Oh, I'm so glad!” Ruto said, smiling broadly, yet in a way that seemed almost so relieved as to be near tears. "I was really...I was so worried! You were so formal when you arrived, I thought maybe that...maybe after all this time you had forgotten, or, or you just didn't care for me any more. I’m not sure which would have been worse." Zelda walked toward her as she babbled. "I mean, it has been seven years, I know, but all this time, I’ve been wanting to see you. I wanted to see you again so badly for so long; I never stopped. It hurt me so much back then that you had to leave, I...I never even came back here. This is the first time I’ve visited this place in a long time; it just didn't feel right any more by myself...but, even though I was worried, I thought maybe, if you hadn't forgotten, if you still...still liked me, you might come here. And...well, you haven't forgotten then, but...do you still...care?”

Her speech ended as Zelda came to stand before her. Without a word, the Hylian princess moved forward, and wrapped her arms around the Zora woman in front of her. She was at a loss for words, and had to fight back a relieved tear. Ruto remembered her, and felt the same way, maybe even more so. She couldn't answer, she didn't trust her voice not to break, so she simply nodded, the motion felt rather than seen as her head rested against Ruto's. Ruto's arms wrapped around her back, and they stood still and silent, the simple contact between them enough to take the place of a hundred conversations.

Eventually Zelda trusted herself enough to whisper, "I'm sorry. When I saw you, I...I suddenly didn't know what to do, how to act. I'd wanted to see you again so much for seven years, and then suddenly, there you were...and suddenly I didn't know what to do, how you would be now...I just panicked, and overdid it with the formality."

"Apology accepted! I'm just glad that...that you haven't changed. It's been so long," Ruto said, drawing back.

Zelda nodded as they sat down, making themselves comfortable at the water's edge. "Yes, we were just children, really. Too young to even know what we were doing..."

Ruto grinned. "But not too young to do it anyway."

Zelda gave a happy laugh. "We certainly weren't! I remember when Impa felt I was old enough to be educated about physical intimacy. She was surprised at how easily I "learned" about it. Sometimes I like to imagine just what an uproar there would have been if I'd told her why. The scandal of it, Hyrule's crown princess having sex with a girl - a Zora girl! - before she'd even turned twelve!"

"Oh, yes, very fun for you to imagine," Ruto said, sticking her tongue out jokingly. "Things are different for us than for you land people. For me, there _is_ scandal, right now! I'm the biggest subject of gossip in the whole Domain! All thanks to you, I might add."

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked, confused. Surely Ruto had not told anyone...

"Like I said, things are different for us. Once a boy or girl becomes 16, it's expected that they'll go about with others around their age, courting and having sex with new partners frequently. We experiment so we can get a feel for what we want in a mate. It's a basic tradition, one that I'm told is very fun."

"But you..." Zelda started.

"...haven't done it, no," Ruto finished. "Everyone is most distressed about it! "How will she suitably mate, behaving in such a manner?" It's all anyone talks about."

Zelda was silent for a moment. There was a question within her, one that seemed to weigh her insides down with its importance, with its need to be answered yet also its fear at the answer. Finally, gathering her strength, she released this question, her heart pounding at its implication. "Ruto...the reason why you haven't...engaged in this tradition. Is...Is it...me?"

There was a moment of silence between them, silence as Ruto gazed deeply into Zelda's eyes, the deep blue of them filling her with the same feeling as when she had first entered the water, natural and perfect. Then she said, "I don't need to experiment. I know who I want to be my mate, Zelda. I...I loved you then, and I love you now."

There was a silence, as Ruto's words ran through Zelda, a wonderful wave of happiness that set her heart fluttering and singing in delight. Ruto leaned forward ever so slightly, her lips gently brushing against Zelda’s. The spark that they had felt so long ago returned, a hundred times stronger than before. They parted after only a few seconds, tears running down both of their faces. Though they had been trying to stay composed, it proved impossible, and both of them leaned in once more, kissing again as their tears ran together, mixing and falling away.

For a few moments the kiss was tender and chaste, but soon enough seven years of desire began to take hold. Zelda was the first to act, letting her tongue lightly brush against Ruto’s lips. The Zora princess was a little surprised, but recovered quickly enough. She parted them, letting Zelda’s tongue slip in. Zelda began to gently explore Ruto’s mouth with her tongue, rubbing against every spot she could find. The feeling of it sent chills through Ruto. This moment was everything each woman had ever wanted for years.

Ruto began to mimic Zelda’s actions, moving her tongue in time with Zelda’s, intertwining the organs. Both women moaned softly into the kiss. Zelda began to run her hands along Ruto’s back. Even through her silken gloves she could feel the warmth of her body, twitching ever so slightly at every bit of contact. Ruto as well began to run her hands along Zelda’s figure. Though she was slightly hampered by the clothing, she could still feel the firm muscles that rested beneath, and she was pleased and impressed with the strength of her dear land princess, just as Zelda had always hoped she would be.

Their kiss lingered for several minutes longer before the princesses parted, a thin string of saliva hanging between them. Zelda was transfixed by Ruto’s eyes, a beautiful amethyst that she found to be completely entrancing. Finally she came to her senses. “That was...” she began, but the words died in her throat. There really was no proper way to describe the feelings of it. Trying to would only take away from its power. Ruto merely nodded in silent agreement. Then she grinned, broadly but shyly.

“Do you want to take a swim?” There was a small trace of mischief playing across her lips, the final traces of tension that still existed finally melting away completely.

“I would love to," Zelda said. She slipped off her gloves, setting them aside, and then stood and turned her back to Ruto. “Could you unzip me please?” she asked, pulling her hair back.

"Could I...do what to you?" Ruto asked in confusion.

"My...dress zips up in the back," Zelda explained, calmly excited and nervous at the same time. "I'd...I'd like you to help me to...remove it."

"O-Oh. Right, of course..." Ruto responded, having no idea what she was talking about. She walked up and looked doubtfully at the dress's back. After a few moments of hesitation, she finally admitted, "Zelda, I don't know what you're talking about."

Zelda scrunched her face up in confusion for a moment, before suddenly laughing gaily. "Oh, of course! You don't know what a zipper is, do you? You don't wear clothing, so why would you? I'm sorry. Here, let me help you..."

She reached back, found Ruto's hand, and, as a thrill coursed through her at the contact, guided Ruto upwards, to the top of the zipper. She gently assisted Ruto's fingers as they drew the little metal piece downward, and suddenly this simple act of undressing had become an intimate cooperation for them both.

Zelda shrugged her shoulders, letting her dress slip away. She now stood in nothing more than her light pink underwear and long white stockings. Ruto looked Zelda over, taking in every change that had occurred since she had last seen the land princess. One of the many things that stood out were the small nubs poking through her bra. She blushed very faintly, remembering how naïve she had been when she had seen Zelda’s body the first time.

Zelda smiled as she saw where Ruto's eyes were, and removed her bra. “Would you like to touch them?” she asked, stepping forward, gesturing to her chest.

Actually, Ruto didn't really care one way or another about touching them; her eyes had simply happened to stop there first. She'd have much rather run her hands through Zelda's impossibly beautiful, luxurious hair. But she did remember how pleasing this part of Zelda's body had felt to the girl long ago, so she reached out and cupped one of the ivory mounds. Zelda let out a small coo at the sensation. Ruto gently traced the curve of Zelda’s breast, letting her fingertips brush against the underside, sending a small tickle through the blonde, who let out a small giggle.

“You like that, huh?” Ruto said, a grin appearing on her face she brought up her free hand and began to give the other breast the same treatment. As Ruto fondled her breasts almost playfully, Zelda could feel her body getting hotter and hotter. The pleasure was filling her entire mind, escalating when Ruto began to playfully pinch and tug at her nipples, and before very long, the pleasing tension broke. A sharp cry tore free from Zelda’s lips as her legs went weak for a second, but she did not fall, as Ruto caught and supported her, Zelda’s breasts still pressed firmly against her palms.

“I guess your breasts are a lot more fun than mine!” Ruto said, half teasing.

"I...I never knew that could happen..." Zelda murmured in happy wonder. Neither her own private explorations nor the explanations of sex given by Impa had ever led her to believe that orgasm could be achieved from loving her breasts alone.

“Hm, I wonder what else I can make happen?” Ruto said, grinning again. She pressed herself firmly against Zelda, becoming excited from the bodily contact with the love of her life. Ruto began to gently slide her chest against Zelda’s, reaching one hand up to run through the long, silken hair, the other dropping to her waist and cupping her rear.

The feeling of Ruto’s smooth chest against her nipples was a new and wonderful feeling, quite different than her hands but every bit as good. As Ruto twined her fingers through her hair and murmured in delight at it, Zelda reached down and lightly brushed her fingers over one of Ruto’s fins. The Zora princess let out a small sound that was a mixture of pleasure and surprise; her fins were much more sensitive now than she remembered them being all those years before. They wrapped their arms around one another, caressing everywhere they could, marveling at the electric pulses that coursed through them every time they discovered a new spot on the other's body.

The sensations of Zelda’s nimble fingers tracing along her delicate fins was nearly more than Ruto could stand, and the wonderful feel of her hair, her soft, beautiful hair running between her fingers was only fueling the flames that were overtaking her senses. The sound of Zelda hitting her peak, though, was the final push. A ripple of ecstasy washed over Ruto, taking her breath away as her body shook and her insides quivered and seized up. She squealed breathlessly as Zelda, in her own orgasmic spasm, gripped her fins harder, and Ruto in turn buried her face into as much hair as she could seize.

The two stayed in each other's embrace for what felt like hours, but may have been mere seconds. When they finally parted, they took a moment to kiss again, before stepping apart a few feet. “I think...I need to sit for a moment,” Zelda said, slightly overwhelmed. Ruto likewise was more than a little dazed. Both women sat back down at the edge of the pool, Ruto dipping her feet into the water while Zelda kept her legs crossed.

Ruto smiled shyly at her friend and lover. "Thank you for...for this. I've wanted it for so long!"

"No need for thanks," Zelda said, shaking her head. "I've wanted it for as long...and anyway, you were hardly the only one to enjoy it!"

Ruto chuckled happily. She began to look Zelda’s body over again, giving it a more thorough appraisal now. Her belly was trim and smooth, except for the odd little dip in the middle that Ruto found to be rather cute. Once again, Ruto found herself marveling at the attractive, toned physique that her land princess now had, the beautiful blue waters of her deep eyes, that gorgeous, exotic golden hair...but something more caught her eye now. There was a small, dark stain in the middle of the pale purple panties that Zelda had yet to remove. This attention did not go unnoticed, as Zelda blushed under Ruto's gaze. “As I said...this has been enjoyable."

Zelda stood, and from the angle that she was sitting at, Ruto could fully admire the shape of Zelda’s long legs, covered by the white silk stockings that made them even more enticing in an exotic way. Zelda hooked her thumbs into the side of her panties, and slowly pulled them down, bending over a bit as she did, much to Ruto's delight.

Once they were removed, Zelda put her hands behind her back so that Ruto could fully view her body. “You’ve got more hair!?” Ruto exclaimed, staring at the neatly-trimmed blonde hair around Zelda’s quim.

Zelda felt her face flush slightly again. “Yes...It’s something that happens to us as we grow older.”

Before she could say anything more, Ruto stretched out a hand and brushed her fingers against Zelda’s loins. The hair felt different from the hair on her head; it was a bit curly, and even softer. Zelda whimpered a bit as Ruto’s fingers danced across her quim, gently exploring her in a new way.

"You land dwellers are so strange,” Ruto murmured, leaning in close enough that Zelda could feel her breath stirring up her pubic hair. “But strange in such wonderful ways.”

Zelda reached down and took Ruto’s wrist, halting her for the moment. “As enjoyable as this is, I don't think I'll be able to stand for much longer,” she said softly. Ruto nodded and pulled back, giving Zelda a moment to sit back down. Instead of sitting immediately, though, Zelda walked over to the wall. She then sat and leaned against it, with her legs spread wide in a way that she knew would surely get her scolded, even if she were clothed.

"Please, Ruto, take me. Make _love_ to me," she requested softly, saying the most wonderful words Ruto had ever heard.

Ruto put one hand on Zelda’s head, pulling her into a kiss. Her other hand went to Zelda’s womanhood, a couple of fingers slipping into her. Zelda moaned into the kiss as Ruto began to gently pump her fingers. At the same time, Zelda lifted up one of her legs and pressed it against Ruto’s womanhood. The feeling of Zelda's silken stockings against her maidenhood made her jerk sharply, and moan.

Zelda writhed against Ruto’s hand, wanting more and more of the wonderful feeling that now filled her body. It was more than just the pleasure, though that was immense; it was a sense of fulfillment that had been missing from her life ever since the moment she had parted from the Zora princess those years ago. Every single sensation that Ruto's smooth, scaled flesh made within her was the greatest pleasure of both the body _and_ the mind. At the same time, Ruto was grinding her own hips against Zelda’s leg. The warmth and smoothness of her stocking was overtaking her senses, filling her with a heat that made the longing she had felt for so long seem as though it were nothing more than a half-remembered dream. Just being able to press herself against the one she loved was so emotionally exciting and satisfying that it was better than the wildest and most passionate of sex.

Ruto could feel Zelda’s inner walls squeezing down on her fingers tighter than before as she got closer to the edge. She sped up her rhythm a bit more, twisting her fingers. Ruto broke the kiss and locked eyes with Zelda; her deep blue eyes were hazy and distant with pleasure, and soon they closed tightly as Zelda let out a sharp moan, tilting her head back as her body shook hard. Her inner walls coiled so tightly against Ruto’s finger that it was nearly painful, but the Zora girl continued to work her fingers, drawing it out at as long as she could. Ruto was soon brought over the edge as well from Zelda’s twitching leg as it hit a particularly sensitive spot. She let out a shuddering whimper as her body began to spasm, joy rushing through her just like the liquid love oozing out of her.

The two spent several seconds lost completely in pleasure. In their minds, there was nothing but light, pleasure, and each other. Finally, as the hurricane of bliss died down, they managed to return to a kiss, which lasted only a second before Ruto fell forward, resting her head on Zelda’s shoulder. She sobbed her unimaginable happiness into Zelda's comfortable frame for a moment, before quieting. They simply stayed that way for several minutes, breathing heavily, reflecting on the wonder of what had happened. Eventually, Ruto nuzzled her cheek against the small of Zelda’s neck, inhaling deeply. The soft floral scent of her hair added to the still strong afterglow that she was basking in. Zelda let her hand slide down Ruto’s back, making her tremble lightly. Her fins brushed against Zelda, sending another ripple of pleasure through both of them. The slightest physical connection between them still held such power over them.

After several moments more of rest, Ruto sat up. “Zelda...” she murmured softly, leaning in just short of their lips touching.

“Ruto...” the Hylian princess whispered back, and tilted forward the rest of the way. The kiss was short, but every bit as wonderful as before.

When they parted, Ruto pulled back, sitting down. She couldn’t help but notice the large stain on Zelda’s stocking. “Sorry about that,” she said softly.

“It’s alright,” Zelda said. “You certainly do...produce a lot of...of that. There must have had three times as much as me. Do all Zora have so much, or is it just you?"

Ruto shrugged, blushing in embarrassment. "I don't know. I've never been with anyone else; I have nothing to go by. I...I hope it doesn't...I hope you don't find it..."

Zelda cut her off with a quick kiss, and smiled. "I find it most attractive, I assure you. Enticing, really." She looked back down at her soaked leg garment. "At any rate, don't worry about this. It's my fault; I meant to take these off before.” She gently tugged it off, with its twin following shortly after.

The sight of Zelda's long, slender legs and delicate feet set of a spark in Ruto that she had never felt before, even in her fantasies about the other princess. This was not the wonderful desires of love; this spark was closer to pure eroticism. Crawling forward slightly she took hold of Zelda’s foot. The blonde woman gasped slightly. Ruto looked up at her in alarm and let go.

"I'm sorry, does that hurt?" she asked in concern.

Zelda shook her head, though she seemed confused. "Er, no, not at all. Quite the opposite...it was very, very pleasant. I'm just very surprised...I've never felt that sensation before, not from my foot. But having you touch it was...more than pleasant, it was pleasurable."

Ruto chuckled as a thought came to her. "Here we are, fully grown women, and really, we're still finding out new things and exploring like we did as children."

Zelda laughed, a laugh that tapered off into a slight gasp as Ruto once again took hold of her foot, examining it. Like everything else about the Hylian woman, it was very strange, and yet so delightful. The small, delicate toes were free from the webbing of Ruto's own feet, round, stubby, lovely little nubs that Ruto could not help but begin to kiss. As she gave a gentle smooch to each, Zelda began to whimper, even while Ruto thrilled at the soft skin she held, soft from an easy life spent in silk and slippers, not like the scaled, tough flesh of Ruto's own.

Zelda could feel the familiar heat of pleasure welling up inside her anew, stronger, in fact, than even before, with every tiny brush of Ruto’s lips against her foot. Slowly and with great care the Zora princess traced her hands along her foot, studying every contour, occasionally planting a tender kiss on any spot that made Zelda coo or writhe.

“Ruto...I would like to do the same for you,” Zelda said, in a husky tone that surprised even herself with its raw sexuality.

Almost in a trance, Ruto shifted her place so that she could lift a leg up, presenting it to Zelda. For a moment she felt a trace of embarrassment. Where Zelda had most likely never walked on anything but the smoothest of marble and lush carpets her whole life, wearing the finest of footwear. Ruto had traipsed through caves her entire life, and swum hard with her feet, and aside from that, Zoras' scaled flesh was much thicker, to protect from the bitter cold of deep waters. What would the beautiful Hylian princess think of her tough, clumsy feet, not even worthy of being compared to the soft, perfect beauty of Zelda's own?

But none of that mattered to Zelda; to her, every part of Ruto was beautiful beyond comprehension. She traced a single finger along Ruto’s sole, filling her with a new sensation. Once again, Ruto marveled at the way the slightest contact with Zelda set her aflame with desire and happiness. As the jolt went through her, Ruto reflexively spread her toes, revealing the thin webbing between them. Just as with her fins, the thin membrane caught the light and created a wonderful array of colors. Zelda splayed her fingers, and pressed against the webbing, causing Ruto to shudder and moan, her lips quivering against Zelda’s own sole. It easily felt as good as all of the wonderful attentions Zelda had paid to her other fins, perhaps even more.

As pleasure built within her, Zelda was struck with inspiration. Wanting to surprise her lover, she didn’t say a word before acting. Zelda slowly moved her free leg forward, and pressed it against Ruto’s crotch, her toes gently teasing the small opening. Ruto nearly jumped at the shock of sudden and unexpected pleasure.

“Mmm, nice idea!” she complimented.

Her competitive nature sparked. Ruto followed Zelda's example and brought her second foot into play. Ruto slowly ran her toes along the length of Zelda’s slit, from bottom to top. She stopped at the patch of soft, damp hair, so much different from what was on her head but still lovely in its own way. She gently stroked it a few moments, before lowering her foot again.

Ruto and Zelda were entwined for several minutes, each trying to bring the other to a new level of pleasure as they licked, suckled, and teased the foot in their hands, and pressed and twisted their toes into their lover's core, and they were succeeding excellently. Before long neither could hold out any longer, and they cried out in unison as waves of ecstasy assaulted every part of their minds.

Zelda leaned back against the wall, while Ruto laid down on the floor. Neither could feel anything, not even pleasure, for a few seconds, as they gasped and tried to recover their senses. They were simply unable to completely take in the fullness of the experiences that had transpired so rapidly.

Finally, Zelda managed to say, “Something I am rather curious about...what does it taste like?”

“What does what taste like?” Ruto asked, not comprehending what Zelda had just asked.

Zelda sat up and moved forward, running a finger along Ruto’s cunny, sending a shiver of pleasure through her. “This,” Zelda said, bringing her hand into Ruto’s sight, a bit of her juices coating Zelda’s digits.

“I...I don’t know, I mean...like I said, I've never been with anyone else,” Ruto answered.

"You've never thought to try it when touching yourself?" Zelda asked, curious as she watched the rivulets of Ruto's copious cum trickle across the ground.

"I, er, I don't do that," Ruto answered.

"Don't do what? You mean you don't...don't touch yourself?" Zelda asked, disbelieving. She felt she could not have bore to live these past years without being able to at least touch herself with thoughts of her Zora princess.

Ruto shook her head. "No, never. It's...it feels wrong. I think when my people find their mate, the one they love above all else, it just...it doesn't seem right, somehow. When I tried once, shortly after you'd had to leave, all it did was make me feel miserable. I don't...I don't want anyone to touch me but you, Zelda. Not even myself. No one should take my love but you; it's wrong to me."

Touched deeply by Ruto's words, and moved by the thought of being unable to even physically comfort herself for seven long years with her memories, Zelda leaned down and kissed Ruto's lips tenderly, putting as much of her love into the connection as she could. She then broke the kiss, and licked the fluids off her fingers before Ruto's eyes. Ruto couldn’t help but lick her lips at the way Zelda seemed to savor it. As Zelda took in the taste, she was at a loss for words. It was salty, but at the same time there was a hint of sweetness that surpassed even the best candies she had ever had, and there was something else that she couldn’t even begin to compare to any taste known to her.

“So?” Ruto asked, a bit of apprehension in her voice.

“Wonderful," was the only word to slip out, before Zelda’s hand dipped back to her mound, soft fingers sliding against her, gathering up more of her nectar. The blonde princess brought her hand up, a small pool of juices cradled between her fingers. She inhaled the scent of it, before drinking it down, sighing in contentment as the flavor filled her mouth.

Before swallowing the last few drops, Zelda leaned forward and kissed Ruto, giving her a taste of herself. Ruto was unsure what to think for a second. The taste was familiar, but not, at the same time, but she enjoyed it all the same, and the sweetness of Zelda’s saliva mixed in with it made it all the better. The kiss lingered on for several moments longer, after all of Ruto’s juices had been drank down. Once they finally parted, Zelda gave her lips another quick swipe with her tongue, trying to get even a hint of the flavor that may have still clung to them.

Ruto grinned. “That was pretty good, but now I’m wondering about your taste. And I intend to find out!” Ruto whispered as she lay down, her face mere inches from Zelda’s womanhood. Zelda blushed lightly. As much as they had done already, she still felt a rush of excitement and nervousness at doing something so intimate with this woman.

The moment that Ruto’s tongue brushed against her slit, any trace of thought left Zelda, except that of pleasure. It was not the deep fullness of Ruto’s fingers reaching deep into her core, or the light tickles of her toes dancing along the edge. It was both at once and more, so much more; the heat of her mouth made it feel like she was melting away. Zelda silently moved her mouth, too far gone with bliss to even moan or cry out as Ruto’s tongue probed deeper into her, wriggling and rubbing against her most sensitive places at angles which fingers could never reach.

Ruto couldn’t help but moan against Zelda’s mound as she lapped away the wonderful liquid that flowed out of her. Though not as sweet as her own, it had a richer taste that, like her hair, made Ruto think of the sun, as though hot, divine juices from the sun itself were pooling upon her tongue. The heat of it sliding down her throat only made her crave more, and the harder she licked the more came flowing forth. Soon Ruto’s head was going light from the heat, and she began to moan more, each moan sending another ripple of ecstasy through Zelda, and each wave in turn caused another gush, making Ruto moan again. Orgasm flowed through the Hylian princess like a tide, a new one setting in just as soon as the last receded, and for many minutes Ruto's tongue played a body that was almost paralyzed with perpetual pleasure.

Finally, as Zelda rode out a final, shuddering orgasm with a scream, Ruto lifted her head away with her mouth still full, and cut off Zelda's scream with a kiss, done in the same way that she had been kissed before, sharing the exquisite drink with her lover as she came. She at last broke away once Zelda had calmed, but Zelda pulled her in close again.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I’m afraid I'm far too exhausted...you have taken me to my absolute limits, my love,” she said, running her hand along Ruto’s back. “But I do not want to leave you, either.”

Ruto wrapped her arms around Zelda and began to nuzzle against her. “I feel the same. I would suggest you just stay here, but that would raise even more questions than if we went to one of our rooms,” Ruto said.

“It would create quiet the scandal,” Zelda agreed. She thought for a moment. “But then...there are few things my people like to focus on and gossip about more than scandal, and it sounds as though the Zora are very similar. If it was known that their princesses were carrying out a scandalous affair with each other, then whenever the topic of relations between our people came up, they might be so busy speculating about it that they might pay more mind to us than to hating each other.” Zelda smirked.

Ruto pulled back, her eyes going a bit wide. “You mean deliberately flaunt our private intimacies, causing an uproar and making trouble for our fathers and your nanny? I’m shocked to hear you suggest something like that! _Shocked_! And very proud. It could be very fun!” The Zora chuckled and held Zelda tighter. The two spent several moments resting in each other's arms, before Zelda began to dress once more. Ruto was able to find the zipper much more easily this time around.

 

o0o0o0o

 

As the two princesses went through the hallway, they held hands. A few maids and guards passed them, but none said anything, or even looked twice. After all, those in the castle are expected not to pry. Occasionally one woman would steal a small kiss, if the servant they passed looked especially gossipy. It did not take long before they were at Zelda’s room.

Once the door was closed, Zelda once again had Ruto help her slip out of her dress.

“Now, let's get to bed!” the Zora princess said, eagerly tossing back the covers.

“Just give me a moment to change into my pajamas,” Zelda commented, turning to her dress case.

“You have clothes for sleeping?!” Ruto questioned, shaking her head. "You land people are crazy! Who must you impress while you sleep? And what's the point of taking clothes off if you're just going to put some more on?"

Zelda couldn’t help but giggle at her lover's reaction. “It's just the way things are done for us, dear Ruto. But I suppose I could set them aside. After all, it is very comfortable here. And the only one here I would wish to impress is not impressed by clothing,” she said with a teasing smile to her beloved, as she removed her undergarments.

She and Ruto crawled into bed and nuzzled closely. Though until that moment they had felt satisfied and exhausted from all their earlier exertions, the feeling of being so close suddenly sparked a new wave of arousal in both women.

“Zelda...” Ruto muttered softly, leaning in to kiss her.

Zelda shifted her leg, so that her knee was pressing against Ruto’s mound. She began to gently grind against her. Ruto mimicked the action, pleasuring Zelda back. As the two rubbed each other, they never parted from their kiss. Neither one of them lasted long before coming. They drifted off soon after, their juices mixing and soaking into the sheets. The future would be complicated and challenging, but whatever it brought, they could face it with love in their hearts.


	4. Epilogue

Zelda sat at the table, silently watching the wax slowly run down the candle. It had melted almost to its halfway point since she had lit it.

It was a sight she had grown used to seeing every night for the past three months, as she waited for her wife to come up and join her for the one small meal that their schedules could allow them to share. It was little more than some bread and salted fish tonight, but it was still a very special meal, just due to the fact that she could actually see Ruto.

The marriage between Princess Zelda and Princess Ruto had gone more smoothly than either had dared hope, in truth. To be sure, their fathers were quite shocked at the notion, and many citizens of each kingdom were dismayed at the idea of it after so many years of enmity...but most accepted this as a necessary, purely political move to ensure friendly relations between the two peoples, and neither Zelda nor Ruto cared to correct them on the matter. In fact, several of the more influential members of the royal court in Hyrule had been, apparently, planning to pressure Zelda into taking an appropriately noble member of the Zoras as a husband for just that reason.

The one stipulation each nation had, of course, was that their princess not allow marital bonds to get in the way producing an heir. It was something each princess had resigned herself to the necessity of, being royalty, although Ruto had found it more than a little annoying that her own royal court were pushy enough about it that they had tried to set her up with a promising Zora male for that purpose on the very day of her wedding! Ruto's bride, on the other hand, had found the situation quite amusing, especially for the fact that her own council had, with the understanding that she apparently preferred the aquatic form, suggested the very same Zora lad for her own heir-producing purposes.

Amusement and annoyance beside, however, Zelda was loathe to lay with any but the woman she loved, ever, and the idea was outright repulsive to Ruto. Zelda had thus set herself to the task of exploring alternatives, steeling herself to engage in a years-long battle of wills with her advisors on the matter while she found a solution...

...Which turned out to be an entirely unnecessary preparation, as the very next day, Impa quietly handed her a small, dusty old diary penned by a distant past queen and ancestor to Zelda. This ancestor had also been in love with a woman and had spent years researching and perfecting the very spell which Zelda had planned to pursue. Apparently most of the queens of Hyrule had chosen to continue their bloodline with this spell and the woman they loved...Zelda had found herself wondering, in fact, whether there might be some substance to the way that she had always found her own facial features quite reminiscent of the angular visage of a Gerudo. Regardless, Zelda would be the first of her line to do so without hiding behind the facade of marriage to a man.

Zora reproductive biology, however, was a trial all of its own. It started off much the same as Hylian pregnancy, with the Zora woman carrying her children (Zoras never produced any less than five offspring from a single mating, an evolutionary response to a typically hostile and dangerous environment early in life) in her womb...but only for three months. At the end of those three months, the mother would have a belly as full as any Hylian woman at nine months - a fact that Zelda had found delightful; she had never imagined her perfect, ethereal aquatic wife could be more gorgeous, until she had seen Ruto heavy with their daughters. At this point, the Zora mother would find a quiet, secluded spot in a body of water, and "birth" her children, which at that point were large, soft, gelatinous eggs, as one would expect from Zoras' heritage. They would need to stay submerged for another nine months, before the Zora children were ready to emerge and begin life.

And it was this stage that Queen Ruto was currently engaged. For nearly three months, Zelda and Ruto's five daughters' eggs had been sitting, gently and securely, at the bottom of the pool of water within their mothers' secret place within the Zora Domain. As a body of water fed in currents through openings too small to admit predators from the outside, in the middle of a secret room within the heart of the Zora's home terrain, and bolstered by several of the finest protective enchantments that Zelda was capable of casting, their royal daughters were safe and secure beyond any rational question.

Instinct is not rational.

Yet another bead of wax ran down the candle...and finally, there was a splash, as Ruto surfaced.

"Hey there, beautiful!” she greeted her wife, beaming in delight as she pulled herself out and shook herself dry. “I'm sure I'm late, as always...sorry."

Zelda smiled as she the love of her life dry off. “It’s fine. I'm just glad you came up tonight while I was still awake.” It was a genuinely grateful statement. There had been many times in which she had fallen asleep waiting for this brief meeting.

Zora mothers, it turned out, were possessed with an utterly unshakeable protective instinct, where their eggs were concerned. Whether laid in a poorly-concealed riverbed exposed to any number of natural threats and predators, or the most secured secret pool in all of Hyrule, the result was the same: the mother was taken by an inescapable need to constantly stay by her children as they grew in their gelatinous orbs, protecting them and doing what she could to ensure that the currents rushing over them were the right temperature and speed.

It was deep and primal, well beyond even such a strong personality as Ruto's to resist. It was so overpowering that Zelda had seen days recently when Ruto was almost a nervous wreck simply because she'd needed to briefly surface for air four times that day instead of just three. No wonder Zora women had evolved their air-storing "breasts"; Zelda was quite sure that if Ruto had needed to leave her eggs for air any more often, she'd outright lose her mind with worry.

"Yeah, sorry...it's just, down there, time just kind of slips away,” Ruto explained, not for the first time, as she grabbed her bread and started taking large bites out of it. "I'm just so focused on making sure everything's good with our girls, the day rushes by! I swear, the only other thought that manages to break through that focus sometimes is...well, missing you."

It was, in fact, an incredible testament to her love and desire for Zelda that Ruto could even bring herself to leave the water for a short dinner with her, and Zelda knew it. She was very glad for that fact...although not commonly shared with outsiders, it was a known occurrence for a Zora mother to become so worked up about protecting her eggs during this period of their development that she neglected her own basic needs, and became so weak that she passed away soon after their birth.

"Well, I'm certainly pleased to be able to tempt you back up here, no matter how late it gets," Zelda told her wife with a smile, which turned playful a moment later. "Although I wonder if it's really me you're surfacing for, and not just the bread?"

There had been many parts of Hylian culture that the Zoras had never experienced, and vice-versa, that were now being shared between the two peoples, since becoming united through their rulers' marriage. Bread, a foodstuff wholly unknown to the fish people previously, was surprisingly Ruto's favorite by far.

Ruto grinned back, as best she could with half a loaf in her mouth. "You do know how to tempt a girl, land queen. How's it going with the farming thing, anyway? Any progress?"

"A little, but it's slow. Catching a civilization up on thousands of years of agricultural advancement is challenging, and there are lots of other matters to tend to each day besides that," Zelda replied, breaking her own bread. "I daresay our daughters will be halfway grown before anyone here is enjoying domestic baked goods."

While Ruto was engaged with their eggs, Zelda had taken her place in ruling over Zora society. She was, after all, now as much their queen as Ruto, and she had felt that boldly taking the reins of her new people would be the best way to come to know them, and Ruto had seen it as an opportunity for her wife to get the Zora people started on raising wheat and other land-based foods for themselves.

Hyrule would be fine in Zelda's absence; it was still ruled primarily by her father, anyway. Once their daughters hatched, she and Ruto would switch places, in a sense, bringing their family to Hyrule and having Ruto take Zelda's place in court as queen for at least a year, while Zelda focused on motherhood.

"Speaking of them, our girls are really starting to develop down there...I swear I can make out some little fins and tails already!" Ruto exclaimed, enthusiastic and proud.

Zelda perked up at hearing it. “Really...I can’t wait to see them!” she said with a smile. “I’ve only seen illustrations of Zora tadpoles, but I always thought they were very cute. To get to see such adorable, beautiful little things, and know they're ours...oh, I do wish I could see them now; it's so difficult to wait,” she sighed, already thinking of watching them swim about.

Ruto blushed a bashful blue, and gave an embarrassed little chuckle. "Yeah, uh...sorry about that..."

Another part of a Zora's maternal instinct in this stage was that she most definitely did _not_ want anyone in the waters near her eggs, even her own mate. They had tested this aspect of Ruto's instinct, and found it as strong as expected: while Ruto had managed to keep herself from outright attacking Zelda when the Hylian queen had tried diving down into the pool with her, she hadn't quite been able to suppress a need to at least toss Zelda up and out of the water in a manner that made it quite plain that such visits were out of the question in the future.

Zelda shook her head, and smiled with gentle understanding. "Don't be. I understand it's not your fault. I know you love me no less. And I love you no less for it, either."

Ruto smiled back (and had the decency to swallow her food beforehand, this time). "I really, really do," she replied softly, reaching her hand out across the table. Zelda took it, and gripped softly, taking pleasure in the smooth, scaled perfection of her wife's palm and digits. "And hey," Ruto continued with an enthusiastic smile, "another half a year, and you'll be seeing all you could want of them! And they'll still be tiny and adorable then, I promise...not to mention a lot easier to deal with, once we can move them around!"

"Oh? How so? They'll still be quite small, as I understand it...I would think it would be quite difficult?" Zelda asked, interested. She was going to be the one taking care of them most of the time once that time came, so she welcomed any advance knowledge on what to expect.

"Sure, if you tried grabbing them and holding them up yourself, like with those giant babies you land people have!" Ruto replied with a laugh. "But we can just get some bottles or jars, scoop'em into those, and carry them about. Much less work than those pram things you would use. And Zora tadpoles love it; my father's told me he practically had to break my jar to get me out when I was that age, I liked it so much."

Zelda chuckled at the mental image. "Its very different from what I would have expected, but it does sound sensible, and easier," she replied, taking a few bites of her bread.

They spoke for a few minutes more, as Ruto wolfed down her share of the bread and fish, with Zelda sharing details on the progress of the planning and construction of a new bay town, built on both the land and sea as a place in which both Zora and Hylians could live and mingle as a unified populace. As Zelda outlined the latest details of this project, however, she saw the telltale signs that their evening together was coming to an end...Ruto was beginning to fidget, and steal nervous glances back at the water.

Zelda sighed within, but kept her pleasant smile on the outside. Time to say goodbye to her beloved Ruto for another long day...she was so happy to know that the woman she loved so dearly was such an attentive mother, truly she was, but at the same time, Zelda could not help, sometimes, but feel a loneliness not unlike that which she had felt through her youth, before being reunited with her aquatic love.

"Well, it sounds like you've been doing a wonderful job with getting the town started. Maybe it'll even be completed by the time our girls have lungs...we could take them there for their first breath of air," Ruto suggested, with a dreamy look.

"That would be wonderful," Zelda agreed.

"Well...I have to get back down there, darling. I...I really want to stay with you longer, I know it's been so long since we made love, but..."

Zelda interrupted her by leaning forward, and kissing her. It was meant as a reassurance, but at the same time, Zelda could not help but try to pour every ounce of the lonely love she felt into it, and savor every slightest sensation of her wife's lips upon her own. When she parted, she gave the Zora queen a smile, and told her, "I know. I miss you, too, Ruto, _so_ much. Now go to our children. I'll see you tomorrow."

Ruto smiled back, and kissed Zelda on the cheek. "I'll see you then. I love you!" And with that, she dove back into the water.

Zelda watched the ripples fade quietly, as another bead of wax made its slow way to the base of the candle. She smiled, and wasn't sure if that smile was happy or sad, as she stood up, and slowly walked around the pool to the other side, where it was deeper. She then lowered herself to her knees, lay down upon her side at its edge, and extended her arm over it, letting her hand and wrist dip quietly into the cool water.

A few moments later, she felt cool, smooth fingers wrap themselves around her own, as Ruto quelled her aggressive instincts enough to at least allow for the intrusion of her wife's hand. Zelda let the warmth of her hand mingle with the cool of Ruto's: connected, even when apart from the woman she had loved and would always love most, across all her innumerable lives.

"I love you, too," she whispered to the quiet waters.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted the first 3 chapters of this story almost 6 years ago at AFF.org, with the Epilogue having been written specially for AO3. Please keep in mind that I have improved substantially since the time in which this was written. Hopefully it will still be good enough that new readers can enjoy it. I will be reposting several of my favorite works here over time, in the hopes that new readers may enjoy them.


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